Mental Health in Children

This week I'm sharing with you an informative podcast called There is no Perfect Parent that is well worth the listen. Maggie Dent, an educator, bestselling author, and fierce advocate for raising emotionally healthy kids, chats about the realities of parenting tweens and teens. She touches on these topics:

Phones & Social Media
Consequences vs Punishment
Body Image & Self-Worth
Alcohol & Parties
Grief, Loss & Emotional Depth
Pornography & Sexual Development

A reminder that if you are interested in finding out more about supporting mental health in children, a good starting point is browsing through the Emerging Minds website. They have some fantastic resources for families. There's an interesting video that covers what is child's mental health that is well worth watching.

Lunchtime Clubs:

Our Lunchtime Clubs are starting to begin. See the timetable below. Running Club starts this Friday (6/3) at 8.30am with the other clubs starting next week. Chess Club will also begin soon.

We will be running Cubs Club again this year, in conjunction with the Lions Club. A Compass message has gone out to all families with children in years 4-6. Expression of interest is due by next Wednesday. If you would like to find out more information about this great initiative or sign your child up to participate, please email Sarah Hodgson (sarah.hodgson@education.vic.gov.au) with the following details:

Student’s Name:

Student’s 2026 Year level:

Parent / Guardian’s Name:

Parent / Guardian’s Contact Number:

Parent / Guardian’s Contact Email:

The wellbeing hub will continue to open during afternoon recess on Tuesday-Thursday for those that need a break.

Education Sessions

Here is some information about some sessions that some of you may be interested in attending:

HealthAbility seminars in Eltham & Box Hill

Parenting seminars at Eltham:

Wednesday 11th March: Parenting Pre-teens: Making sense of adolescent behaviour

https://events.humanitix.com/parenting-pre-teens-making-sense-of-adolescent-behaviour

Parenting with Confidence group at Box Hill:

The session is free and designed for parents, carers, educators, and people working with young children.

https://events.humanitix.com/parenting-with-confidence-behaviour-made-easier

Useful Websites:

Easing into Adolescence

The Department of Education has launched an Easing into

adolescence webpage for families of students aged 10 to 14 (Grade 5 to Year 8).

The webpage has information and strategies you can use to help ease your child into adolescence and secondary school. These include:

a guide to emotion coaching. Staff from The University of Melbourne’s Tuning in to Teens Kids program developed the guidance.
how to support your adolescent with their studies and more generally. Parenting expert and clinical psychologist Andrew Fuller helped develop this resource.

Subtitles for videos by The University of Melbourne on the webpage are available in 10 languages. You can select your preferred language on the translations page.

Schoolwide Positive Behaviour Supports

Reward System

SWPBS focuses on multi-tiered interventions to promote positive behaviours. As part of the approach to enabling a strong school culture which embodies our school values, we have put in place a whole school sticker rewards system.

Aim of the Reward System

At DPS we have implemented a reward system to reward positive behaviours that are necessary for promoting a positive and supportive school environment. These positive behaviours are based on our four values of Compassion, Resilience, Respect and Responsibility. Part of our reward system includes the handing out of stickers which are distributed by staff when the students are "caught" displaying one or more of the values.

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